Universal NiGHTS
by Songbird of the End
Summary: A collection of NiGHTS crossover oneshot... things.
1. Opening

This is a drably, one-shoty, adopt-a-plot-bunny-y fic… thing. They'll be crossovers of NiGHTS and something a little more mainstream. This is the introduction chapter and will not have much to it; just information adopters should take notice of.

The instructions for this is very simple: take the idea, not the chapter. I'm just pointing out the starting line and where you could go from there.

One more thing before we get past the instructions….

**I WILL NOT BE CONTINUING THEM!**

The last time I posted something like this (with only one chapter, admittedly), most of the reviews I got said they couldn't wait for the next update. I specifically wrote last time that I wouldn't be continuing it, although the bold and caps should get your attention this time.

I already have two written, and they will be put up shortly after I edit them. Remember, they are _**supposed**_ to be short and their crappiness is a package deal.

Right, now then… I should probably do some little story thing so FFNet won't get mad. Hmm… let's see… How about something giving a little backstory to this fic along with an example of how me plus heat equals bad.

* * *

Inside a house at a location that will not be disclosed, a feminine figure is hunched over the keyboard and typing madly. She's on the second floor in a room with a white ceiling and teal walls. Lined up against one wall is a series of small bookshelves containing books from Eragon and Harry Potter to Pooh Goes Visiting. Set into the opposite wall is what looks like what may have once been a closet, but now the doors have been removed. Further along that wall is a window, a work out bike, a mini TV with no reception, a Nintendo 64 with the cartridge to Majora's Mask still in it, and on the next wall is a bigger window and shelving unit holding tons of picture frames. On the opposite of that wall is a large desk holding the computer and the girl in a swivel chair.

The girl continued typing while listening to Open Your Heart by Crush 40, but now she twitched every once in a while. The twitches starting coming more frequently, and it almost looked as if she needed medical attention. Then, she broke out in breathy chuckles and ceased typing. The chuckles evolved into insane, breathy laughter.

An insubstantial black shadow materialized in front of her. The girl kept laughing, unaware of the seeming danger. The shadow drew its hand back, flexing the claws that adorned it, and swung them forward—

SMACK!

--Into a very anti-climactic smack. The girl's head snapped to the side and stopped the insane sounding laughing. She blinked a few times before turning to the shadow that still hung in front of her.

"Thanks Teral."

"I might as well bite, since I'm here," Teral sounded resigned, "what are you working on this time?"

"Well," excitement slowly seeped into the girl's voice, "As you know, I just finished watching a walkthrough of NiGHTS: Journey Into Dreams."

"Well duh, _**we**_ had to watch it too."

"So," she ignored the apparition's interjection, "I got a whole bunch of ideas for NiGHTS crossovers, but I'm already working on two crossovers already, so I decided to do an Adopt-a-Plunny type thing, so other people could do them."

"What makes you think they'd even want to do something like that?" Teral squinted at the monitor. "Especially with how long that stupid rules thing is. I doubt anyone even read that junk." Teral blink after reading the paragraph under the bolded sentence. "You're still sore about that?"

"How am I not supposed to be?"

"Suppressed anger. Good."

The girl bristled, but turned back to the screen and seemed to be lost in thought with some evil fantasy. She typed a few more words, then looked as if she had an epiphany.

"Teral?" She asked slowly.

"What."

"You wouldn't happen to know who broke the glass table outside, would you?" her voice took on an incredibly creepy tone of happiness and innocence.

"Noooo…"

"Teral, you did it, didn't you?"

"…No, I didn—"

"THAT WAS A NICE TABLE!!" The happy voice was long gone and left a very irate girl behind. "I swear, Teral, when I get my hands on you—"

"Oh, did you hear that? I think the oven just went off." And with that, the shadow flew right through the door out of the room.

"IT'S FLIPPIN JUNE, THE OVEN ISN'T ON!" She shouted after it before jumping to her feet, yanking the door open and dashing after it. "GET BACK HERE!!"

She thundered down the stairs, leaving the computer chair spinning from her quick departure. Several loud crashes, bangs and words that children shouldn't hear could be heard from downstairs.

Another figure appeared, with fiery hair and golden eyes. She walked silently across the carpet and turned the monitor off.

* * *

Author-centric. Sorry. That last person at the end is one of my OCs.

I _**do**_ own those books and other stuff mentioned, but **_not_** the companies that made them. And I don't own NiGHTS.

Teral: What the hell!? I do not look like a frickin shadow!


	2. Danny Phantom

A Danny Phantom crossover one. I'm trying to make them funny at the end, but we'll see how I do.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own NiGHTS or Danny Phantom.

* * *

Tucker always knew he had weird dreams. His friends could attest to that.

One of the ones he can remember had him and his friends in this summer camp/exercise program. It took place on a beach with scattered trees that you would find in a forest. Ms. Tetslaff was there too, as the supervisor, complete with a chain of sausage links used as a whip on kids who moved too slow.

The only dream he had that actually fulfilled his dreams was the one with the incident with Nocturne. Danny had to come in and spoil that one, though, and it hasn't come back since. That doesn't mean he hasn't tried, though.

The only dream he had that he didn't tell his friends was the one when he married the Lunch Lady. Yes, the one without a pulse.

He always knew he had weird dreams. This one, however, takes the cake.

It started off like a normal study hall when Ms. Tetslaff (She's just popping up everywhere, isn't she?) confiscated his PDA and "other techno geek junk." Danny and Sam were nowhere in sight, and Dash said some stupid joke at his expense. But his voice sounded… deeper and so did his cronies'. Then their eyes glowed red.

Now, from hanging around Danny, half-ghost extraordinaire, you get to see a lot of cases of possession. The symptoms are usually: personality changes, voice changes (puberty or not), and their eyes normally turn red. And, well… two out of three isn't bad. Tucker turned and ran _**before**_ they dissolved into grey gas with burning eyes. He didn't even know they did until he glanced back.

At some point during all this (He didn't know. He was too busy running for his life.), the library had melted just into an all black landscape—if you could call it that. It was just an endless expanse of black. Then there was a blinding flash, and he was in a completely new place.

It was nighttime, or at least dark, wherever he was. Up ahead of him was an ornate, dry fountain and a cobblestone road leading from where he stood to and curling around it. Dark trees loomed just off the pathway, but their being full of leaves didn't make them seem too creepy. Branching off the path around the fountain were various doors that lead to nowhere. Seriously, there was nothing behind them, save the trees.

And then the owl showed up. A _**talking**_ owl. It introduced its fancy clothes wearing self as Owl (wow, totally original name). It said that this was someplace called the "Dream Gate." Tucker just tuned him out. And just when he thought this dream couldn't get any weirder, it did.

In the form of a purple flying jester with a huge red crystal in its chest. It also wore a pretty fancy shirt with delicate patterns going down the sleeves and pants. Its purple hat had some darker stripes and came to an end in two points. A small grin was on its face as two clear indigo eyes locked with Tucker's own green pair. It pointed to its right hand (which was held in a traditional "stop" position) and just asked one question.

"Want to dualize with me?"

It was then that Tucker swore off eating Nasty Burger's nachos before bed.


	3. Chapter 3

This one's a mystery crossover. Can you guess who the Visitor is? I tried to make it as obvious as possible... again, we'll see how I do...

**Disclaimer:** I do not own NiGHTS or the mystery thing.

* * *

Owl had seen plenty of Visitors over the years. Most just passed through the Dream Gate in a fashion not unlike zombies, completely oblivious to their surroundings. A rather small minority actually took notice of the unused fountain and bird wearing clothes. An even smaller amount got to dualize with NiGHTS. But, no matter who they were, they always knew they were asleep. The perceptive ones always asked the same first question.

Actually, Visitors always asked a lot of questions. Somewhere along the line Owl wrote up a speech to say to all the first-timers that would answer their questions. He had even thought he'd heard all inquiries that could be asked.

"Whaddya mean I'm asleep!?"

…Until now, that is.

"Exactly that," he sighed, "you are asleep and in the world of dreams. How is that so hard to accept?"

"Because I wasn't tired at all!" The Visitor's blue eyes flashed with an emotion Owl couldn't place. "In fact, I've never been so excited as I was at that exact moment!"

"Maybe you couldn't take it and passed out?" It was possible; this Visitor looked to only be about ten.

The boy stared at Owl like he had just said Reala was hosting a charity event for orphans… or something along those lines that the Visitor would understand. "…Couldn't take it. Right. Listen birdy, I've seen things that would make you wet your petticoat."

Owl puffed up with indignant anger. How dare he! "Little boy—"

"Have you ever been eaten by a giant fish?"

And Owl thought the first question caught him off guard. "What?"

"Stared down a fire-breathing dinosaur?"

"Er…"

"Get knocked over by spiders twice your height?"

"Well…"

"Ooh, ooh, I got it. Almost be smashed into oblivion by fiery boulders spewed by an active volcano?"

"No…"

"Thought not."

"You're not helping!"

"Neither are you."

Owl gave a strangled cry of exasperation. What was with this human!? The other Visitors usually were awed by a talking owl and gratefully listened to his words of wisdom. This one just looked peeved and half listened to most of his orientation speech with ease. It was only the part about him being asleep that got him to snap out of his self induced trance.

Owl took a deep breath to calm himself, losing his cool now wouldn't help anyone.

"Can you please tell me what you were doing before you arrived here?" He asked, now closer to his desired level of calm.

The Visitor eyed him for a moment, probably confused of how quickly he was able to cool off. Then he sighed and sunk down to the ground, situating himself so he was sitting Indian fashion. Owl briefly noted that he didn't show any discomfort despite sitting on a cold cobblestone pathway and wearing only a long green shirt, matching hat and boots.

"Okay," he started, "I opened a door, entered it, pulled a sword out of a pedestal, and wound up here. The End."

Well, at least now Owl knew why the Visitor was so confused. Those were definitely _**not**_ actions that would lead one to nodding off. He didn't want to admit it, but it could be possible that this child was knocked unconscious, but who would want to do something like that? And why? Also, unconsciousness was more of an uneasy sleep where the only dreams possible were nightmares.

Owl suppressed a groan. He knew he wouldn't be able to focus on anything with this mystery hanging over his head. How could the situation get any worse? Famous last words.

"Hey, Owl! What's the trou—Oh! A Visitor!"

* * *

For those of you wondering, yes, that is NiGHTS speaking that last line. The third one is about halfway done, but I wouldn't be surprised if it got uploaded a month from now.


	4. Kirby

**Edit:** Fixed a typo and changed the A/N.

I was curious: How would sleeping 200 years or not make any difference if there's no training involved at all? He'd just be a 200-year-old baby!

And this was the outcome. Takes place a little before Kirby: Right Back At Ya!, during the scene where Kirby's sleeping soundly in his spacecraft. Just curious, but who _**can't**_ see where this is going?

The third crossover was, actually, supposed to be done, but I'm having a bit of issues with keeping them in character in that one. Which is odd, seeing as there's only two characters in it.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kirby or NiGHTS.

* * *

"Come on, Kirby; give me your best shot!" NiGHTS taunted while shooting behind one of the many multi colored pillars.

"Poyo!" A pink puffball raced after NiGHTS on a star larger than he is.

The area around them is strange, to say the least. Shapes ranging from pillars to triangles to huge walls with holes in them almost completely filled the area. There was enough room in between the stalagmite-like potrusions for someone to walk around in. The shapes would gradually change color but would only show 'soft' colors, like those you would see on plastic Easter eggs or on baby clothes. All in all, the maze-like dream was very simple.

_Well_, NiGHTS thought, glancing back into a pair of determined dark blue eyes_, it's probably because this is a baby's dream._

The pink creature tailing NiGHTS could barely speak, but he had been able to say his name (albeit a bit distorted): Kirby. He was carrying a small gold star that Owl had recognized and identified it as the Warpstar and Kirby being a Star Warrior. Kirby had appeared a while ago, and since then NiGHTS (due to Owl's insistence) had been teaching him basic aerial maneuvers. He had been thrown for a loop the first time Kirby tried to suck him up. It was only pure luck that saved him when Kirby got tired and finally closed his mouth. The Nightmaren's arms were starting to go numb from holding onto one of the dreamscape's pillars.

NiGHTS secretly thought Kirby had been born with a black hole for a stomach.

In any case, the pair have now gave up their game of Hide-and-Seek to something of a high speed chase that would make any cop glad they weren't criminals. NiGHTS took a liking to making high speed hairpin turns at every possible moment. A few times, he was able to completely surprise the pink colored baby by doing a half forward flip (thus changing direction) and slip underneath the Warpstar while its rider blinked in confusion.

This last time NiGHTS did so, however, Kirby was expecting it and pushed his light weight down. The Warpstar responded by slamming into the ground, allowing the friction created to turn it white-hot (Kirby remained unaffected, thankfully) as little stars shot off the back. With his escape route effectively cut off, NiGHTS had no choice but to throw his own weight upward to avoid a collision and keep from losing their little game. Kirby stopped pushing, and after rocketing forward he pulled his ride's nose up. It lifted off the ground without complaint, and Kirby turned to race after the white and purple figure dancing just out of reach. Their chase resumed, but this time there wouldn't be a second chance for a certain someone to catch up.

Kirby gave an alarmed "Poyo!" the same time the scenery flashed red, causing the young Nightmaren to stop and turn to look. NiGHTS blinked in surprise. The Star Warrior was nowhere to be found. "…Kirby?"


	5. Kirby?

I bet I know what you guys are thinking. "Didn't she just upload something for Kirby?" This one's different (obviously), but the two run along one of the same lines. Unfortunately, if I tell you, it'll ruin the whole thing. But don't worry, this one spells itself out in the end.

This one could possibly take place during Kirby: Right Back At Ya!, if only for the reason that none of you can really prove me wrong. If you can, though... it's just AU.

Is it just me, or are these getting shorter? (-scowls-)

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own Kirby or NiGHTS.

* * *

"You're going to be a great warrior."

"Poyo?" Kirby responded to the finger currently poking his head. He looked up and met a pair of warm indigo eyes.

"This is the perfect place for training," it continued, "and I _**still**_ can't believe how comlex it is!"

Kirby and NiGHTS were currently inside Kirby's house. Tokkori said he actually got tired of sleeping in a bed, complaining that it kept mussing up his feathers. (Of course, everyone knew that Tiff wore him out with excessive arguments on Kirby's behalf.) So, the two switched, but as part of the deal Tokkori moved the nest indoors as well. There was a bit of debate and teasing as to where to put it ("No! I don't care what you say; my nest isn't going in the fireplace!"), but everyone just brought in a nightstand and put it there.

It was currently early morning, just after sunrise. Tokkori had opened the window to fly out, and almost directly afterwards everyone's favorite purple jester flew in and poked Kirby awake.

NiGHTS alighted upon the fireplace mantle. "You know, it's almost scary how big your imagination is."

As if on cue, a young girl's voice rang out. "Kirby!"

"And almost what someone would call a natural AI." NiGHTS nodded to himself. "I knew you were going to be strong, but you will definitely be a force to be reckoned with." A smile grew on his face. "Or at least, you will be, as soon as your training's done."

Kirby cocked his head to the side. He was sitting across the room on his bed, and another call from outside made him turn his head to look at the door.

The jester nodded. "Right, can't let anyone know I'm here." He jumped off the mantle and circled the room once. "Otherwise, their illusion might be undone, and who knows what'll happen then." And with that, he slid out the window and was out of sight when he heard the door clicked open.

NiGHTS set himself softly on the ground, and pressed himself against the wall with his head turned towards the window. After hearing and making sure the children were inside the hut, he turned and jumped into the air. He did a few stylish acrobatics as he rose higher and higher, before turning to look at the town sprawled beneath him. The young Nightmaren stood with an air of confidence and put his fists on his hips.

"I should still hang around, though. We wouldn't want the Nightmaren to get in this dream more than they already have."


	6. Sonic

Shadow eyed the Doctor's newest prisoner, partly interested. It wasn't because it looked like a floating jester. It was because of a feeling.

Shadow had heard that this was also the newest addition to that blue hedgehog's gang. The only reason it joined was because of Dr. Eggman, there was a lot more unease in the dream world (Nightropica or something), where it claimed to have come from. It seems that, since people were in fear of Eggman, they had nightmares about him, too many nightmares for it to be relatively safe for its world's inhabitants. If Eggman were to be stopped, people could literally rest easy and go back to dreaming.

But now here it was, locked in a titanium-reinforced bird cage hovering moodily in the air. It had its legs and arms crossed, the latter over its chest, with its back to Shadow. A few minutes ago it had been flying high speed laps around the cage, and the trail of sparkles it left had almost been painful to look at. And Shadow had been assigned guard duty.

After spending a few minutes in the same room with the prisoner, Shadow noticed something odd. The Chaos stored inside him made him a bit more sensitive to others' aura, but he could only clearly pick up people like Sonic, who had come into contact with and could use the power of the Chaos Emeralds. He had to really focus on finding someone else's, and even then it wasn't enough for him to use Chaos Control to warp to.

The prisoner claimed to have been from a land of dreams (which Shadow couldn't help but be skeptical of). Thus, you would guess his aura would be light and pure. Its aura was, at first, when Shadow had boredly focused on it. But it slowly revealed that it was not what it seemed, because within that tightly wrapped ball of not-so-pure light was a dark shadow. The longer he focused on it, the darker it seemed to get, including the original ball of light.

It didn't make sense. How could something like that come from a dream? Why did it want to protect something so pure when it itself was tainted? Shadow was becoming irritated when questions like those kept buzzing around in his head, seeking answers. His hold on his emotions was beginning to fail, but he was able to keep the agitation out of his voice.

"What are you?"

The jester spun around, obviously surprised. Its eyes narrowed in suspicion a little, and confusion was evident in its non-gender-specific voice. "What?"

"What are you?" Shadow asked again. "There's no way something dark like you could've been born from a dream."

It grimaced and looked away, then returned to its pervious position except facing him.

"I was…" it began haltingly, "created… from nightmares."

Shadow kept silent as he digested this. Being made from nightmares explains the darker core. However, it joined up with Sonic to help stop nightmares and protect dreams. Why did it do that? Also there was one more thing it said.

"Created?" Shadow repeated.

It nodded solemnly. "Wizeman, the ruler of Nightmares, created me to be the strongest Nightmaren."

It was slightly familiar to Shadow's own story, but there was something wrong. It was trying to keep the Nightmares weak, but its creator is (or maybe even _was_) the ruler of nightmares. Shadow's look of contemplation turned into a hard glare. "You're rebelling against the one who gave you life?"

It glanced away.

"Why!?"

The hedgehog's scornful question rebounded off the walls unanswered for a minute while the jester seemed to have an internal struggle. One side seemed to have won as its indigo eyes became half-lidded. "I was… sent to the waking world once."

Seeing Shadow's angry glare, it turned sideways and clarified. "Don't worry, this is part of it. Wizeman wanted me to find the two dreamers who have the Red Ideya of Courage. He often ordered us to steal the Ideya of Visitors to power his legion of Nightmaren. Ideya represents the attributes of a person: courage, hope, wisdom, intelligence, and purity, each with their own color. Courage is by far the rarest one.

"And since the waking and dreaming worlds are close to each other, it's easy to pass between them if you know how." At Shadow's understanding nod, the aerial acrobat continued. "Everything started easy enough. I landed on top of the highest thing I could find, which was a bell tower. As I opened my senses to find them, however…"

It trailed off as it shivered from the memory, then continued quieter than before. "The place felt dead. Sometimes, I wondered what happened to people whose Ideya got stolen, but since there was no way to enter Nightopia without Ideya, I never had the chance to find out.

"But that city was filled with people without Ideya, and anyone with the slightest sensitivity to these things would feel like curling into a ball and finding a hole to die in. And knowing that I played a part in causing all that suffering…"

It trailed off and glanced at the black hedgehog. "Have you ever been to London?"

The answer was quick and stiff. "No."

"Good," its tone was filled with relief, "it's not a place to hang around in. Anyway, at the time I was beginning to think Wizeman shouldn't be stripping Visitors of their Ideya, and that visit convinced me of it.

"When I got pulled back to the Dream Dimension, I took off and became the unofficial protector of dreams. You should know the rest."

Shadow absently nodded, already focused on shifting through what he had just learned. Nightmares somehow steal the ability to dream from people through Ideyas. The captive Nightmaren felt guilty and started trying to atone for what it has done. Even though it went against his own ideals, Shadow couldn't help but feel grudging respect for trying to set things right.

Silence reigned for all of five minutes, until the prisoner spoke up again. "You remind me of someone."

Shadow gave him a half hearted glare for interrupting his thoughts. It didn't seem to care and continued. "I guess you could say we're siblings, since we were made at the same time by Wizeman. He actually pities me for going against the ruler of Nightmare. But by now, it's too late for him to understand why I'm doing this."

"To atone." It came out as more of a flat statement than a question.

"Well, that and…" The black hedgehog was beginning to loose his patience with the captive's constant pauses. Its eyes shifted back and forth, as if looking for any eavesdroppers (which there weren't any. The security cameras didn't have audio feed), before opening its mouth and barreling on through. "Yes, Wizeman made me, but I'm not an extension of him. I learn from my mistakes without having to be told what they were and how to avoid them in the future. I can form friendships with people who like me, not the leader of the Nightmaren. I have free will, I have emotions, and last I checked I can feel hunger and pain and everything that a normal, sentient being feels.

"I'm me; my own person and _not_ a weapon to be controlled."

Shadow blinked, his only outward reaction. Everything that the jester said went against nearly all of Shadow's beliefs. He expected to feel outraged, to lash out verbally and physically at the Nightmaren and counter its words with those that had comforted him for so long.

A long moment of silence passed. The feeling didn't come. He became frustrated with himself and tried to find the reason he didn't want to tear the prisoner limb from limb.

When he found it, he didn't exactly like the answer.

The hedgehog found that the young Nightmaren's words had more than an ounce of truth to them. All that was said made logical sense, and he could tell it believed in what it said with every fiber of its being. For some reason, he was reminded of Maria, and how they had quickly befriended each other despite the Doctor's initial disagreement. (It hadn't taken him very long to relent, however, when he noticed how much happier his girl had become.)

There was one other reason, one that faintly disturbed even the stoic hedgehog himself. The facts of this nightmare's life seemed to closely match those of the blue faker, and Shadow would bet money that the jester's sibling was a lot like himself. A few things were off, such as Shadow being created by his current boss's grandfather, there being more than a few years were between Shadow and Sonic, and that Sonic wasn't made by Robotnik per se. Yet their stories were so close, so similar, it was almost possible to believe someone had orchestrated their lives from the very beginning.

Shadow got the odd feeling he was just given insight into Sonic's thoughts. Not much, really, but more than he had before.

All further thoughts were drowned out by a blaring klaxon accompanied by a flashing red light. Shadow's attention became focused on the red light, and the jester—NiGHTS, he thought it was called—gave a startled jump. The automated female voice came over the speakers.

"**Intruder alert. Priority One Hedgehog. Intruder alert. Priority One Hedgehog."**

Or, in laymen's terms, Sonic is in the building.

The jester's face broke into an ecstatic grin, and it pumped its fist in the air with an exclamation of joy. Shadow didn't look too irritated—just thoughtful with his ever-present scowl currently missing. He turned his head to look at a small object on the side table, reaching out and picking it up with one of his gloved hands. The hedgehog studied it for a minute before letting out a small sigh and his eyes drifted shut.

"Here."

Despite the screaming klaxon and how quiet the statement was, NiGHTS turned to Shadow and caught the yellow blur that had been thrown to him. The acrobat's eyes widened as he realized the significance of the comically large key, and it looked up to the hedgehog's retreating back as he exited the room. The Nightmaren held the item close and allowed a hesitant smile to cover its face. As the door slammed shut, NiGHTS whispered the one dream that it dared to dream.

"Maybe… there is some hope for Reala after all."

* * *

Please, allow me to explain my reasoning.

I came up with this idea while I was looking into the Fleetway Sonic comics. According to them, Sonic was originally a regular, brown hedgehog and Robotnik was Kintobor, a kind scientist trying to help the world. They started out as friends, and during an experiment to see if Sonic really could break the sound barrier, there was some sort of reaction with the Chaos Emerald in the machine that made the machine explode and turn Sonic blue. Through another accident that I'm not entirely sure of that involved a rotten egg, Kintobor was turned into the evil warlord Robotnik. The rest, as they say, is history.

It struck me as creepy that NiGHTS/Reala's story is so similar to this Sonic/Shadow's story: made by (relatively) the same person, one continues to follow them unquestionably and the other works against them. Sure, both games were made by Sonic Team, but... still.

I only have one other oneshot planned, but this one is pretty much the cream of this crop. This one would happen about halfway through the story, with this scene planting certain seeds in Shadow's head. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with it.

As always, I own nothing and hope for reviews.


End file.
